The Tampa Bay Lightning find themselves now down 3-0 to the Montreal Canadiens in the best-of-seven first-round series. Facing elimination, it certainly would hurt their cause even further if they were without their captain and best scoring threat Steven Stamkos.

“Our staff said he was good to go and Steven said he was OK…so he played,” said Tampa Bay’s head coach Jon Cooper, as per David Amber of CBC.

“It was just something I tried to shake off,” said Stamkos, as per NHL.com. “Obviously, games like this you don’t want to miss any time, so I want to be out there as much as I can to help our team win. It was close tonight, but not good enough.”

Stamkos said he told the medical trainers that he wanted to get back out there. He says he has a headache but wanted to play.

If he felt good enough to play, more power to him. There are plenty of players who get injured in the playoffs that keep playing. Whether or not they have a concussion is not something they’re interested in come Playoff time. Just like many players that break bones and don’t say anything to the medical staff about the endless pain. Not saying I agree with it, but it’s also something I would probably do in the same situation because it’s the Playoffs. Giroux and Bergeron come to mind with their respective broken hand and ribs. He’s not going to release how bad he feels until play is done.